“My family is from Houston,” said Shepard after practice on Sunday afternoon. “It’s a sad situation, something that you can’t prepare for. We just have to pray for the best, and hope nothing but the best for everyone that’s out there.

“Ninety-eight percent of my family is from Houston. I have a lot of family out there, have checked up on as many people as I possibly can. Everyone seems to be doing pretty well but we’ll see in a few days.”

According to the Associated Press, Harvey in hurricane form hit the coastline on Friday night, but the destruction to the Houston area has continued as now-Tropical Storm Harvey unleashed massive amounts of rain and flooding. Both of Houston’s airports have since been closed, according to the Associated Press. The National Weather Service estimates that some parts of Houston will receive as much of 50 inches of rain as residents continue to try to evacuate or seek high shelter.

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“Certain parts (are evacuating) and certain parts aren’t, so we’ll see,” he said. “None of my family is at that point where they need to evacuate.”

Shepard has also checked in on his dirt, sand and gravel business in Houston.

“It stops for a few weeks, but when you have destruction like that, it only makes construction that much more booming, unfortunately. This will give us a lot of business in the near future, but you really don’t want to see these types of things happen.”

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